A Day in the Life of a Microplastic Particle

From a plastic bottle to microplastic particles, told as if it happened in a single day 6:00 AM It began the workday at 6 AM: filled, capped, handed to someone in a hurry. It held water for twenty minutes, then was put down and, missing the recycling bin by a few steps, dropped into a drain instead. It is made of PET, which is a recyclable plastic engineered to resist breaking down. It is built for permanence, but used within minutes. 9:00 AM Rain carried it to a stream, the stream to a...